Nathan Phillips (born February 22, 1954), also known as Sky Man, is an

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

Native American political activist known for his role in the

January 2019 Lincoln Memorial confrontation On January 18, 2019, a confrontation between groups of political demonstrators took place near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The interaction between Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann and Native American Nathan ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Early life

Phillips was born in

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, where he spent his first five years in a traditional Omaha Nation tribal home. From about the age of five, when he was separated from his mother, he was raised in a

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

foster family. He went to

Lincoln Southeast High School Lincoln Southeast High School is a public government education school located in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. It is part of the Lincoln Public Schools school district. Lincoln Southeast High School has the highest accreditation from th ...

.Josh Funk
'A split feather'
''

The Daily Nebraskan ''The Daily Nebraskan'', established in 1871 as the ''Monthly Hesperian Student'', is the student newspaper of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Although many journalism students are on staff, the ''Daily Nebraskan'' is independent of the uni ...

'' January 11, 1999. He later moved to Washington, D.C. Phillips entered the

U.S. Marine Corps Reserves The Marine Forces Reserve (MARFORRES or MFR), also known as the United States Marine Corps Reserve (USMCR) and the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve, is the Reserve components of the United States armed forces, reserve force of the United States M ...

on May 20, 1972. During his time in the military, he was trained as an

anti-tank Anti-tank warfare originated from the need to develop technology and tactics to destroy tanks during World War I. Since the Triple Entente deployed the first tanks in 1916, the German Empire developed the first anti-tank weapons. The first deve ...

missileman and then served on active duty as a refrigerator technician in Nebraska and California; he was shown as

absent without leave Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or post without permission (a pass, liberty or leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with unauthorized absence (UA) or absence without leave (AWOL ), which a ...

three times. He was not deployed to Vietnam or anywhere overseas.Did Nathan Phillips Falsely Claim He Was a Vietnam Veteran?

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, Dan Evon, January 23, 2019 On May 5, 1976, Phillips was discharged as an E-1

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following disciplinary issues.

Activism

At the end of the 20th century, Phillips was working to create a foster care system run by American Indians for American Indian children to help them gain an appreciation for their heritage: "I don't want our children to think that prison is the only place for them to go." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' identified Phillips as a former director of the Native Youth Alliance, a group aiming to uphold traditional culture and spiritual ways for future Native Americans, and reported that he leads an annual ceremony honoring Native American war veterans in

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

. ''

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'' called him "a well-known Native American activist who was among those leading the Standing Rock protests in 2016 and 2017 against the construction of an oil pipeline in North Dakota". Phillips was among the last of the protesters when law enforcement evicted the camps and effectively ended the protests, which for his part were "a prayer (...) a commitment to stand for our youth, for our children, for nature and for myself, standing for my nation." In 2015 Phillips alleged a group of students from

Eastern Michigan University Eastern Michigan University (EMU, Eastern Michigan or simply Eastern), is a public research university in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Founded in 1849 as Michigan State Normal School, the school was the fourth normal school established in the United Sta ...

harassed him.According to a April 22, 2015, Fox local news report by Dave Spencer, in 2015, Phillips filed a report of racial harassment with Eastern Michigan University campus police against 30 to 40 students who "referred to themselves as the Hurons, the former mascot at EMU", dressed as Native Americans for an American Indian theme party. He was "bombarded with racial slurs", and one of the students threw a beer can at him. A January 2019 article in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' described Phillips as a "a veteran in the indigenous rights movement". A January 2019 article in ''

Indian Country Today ''ICT News'' (formerly known as ''Indian Country Today'') is a daily digital news platform that covers the Indigenous world, including American Indians, Alaska Natives and First Nations. It was founded in 1981 as a weekly print newspaper, ''The ...

'' described Phillips as a "keeper of a sacred pipe".

''Between Earth and Sky''

Phillips is the subject of the award-winning 2013 documentary film ''Between Earth and Sky'' in which he and his wife, Shoshana, travel back to his Omaha reservation after his wife was diagnosed with bone-marrow cancer. Together they seek traditional healing for her. She died of the disease in 2014.

"Make It Bun Dem" video

In 2012, Phillips and his son appeared in the music video for " Make It Bun Dem", a song by

Skrillex Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. Growing up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he joined the post-hardcore band From First to Last as the lead sing ...

and Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley. In a February 20, 2017, interview that took place during the

Dakota Access Pipeline protests The Dakota Access Pipeline Protests, also called by the hashtag #NoDAPL, began in April 2016 as a grassroots opposition to the construction of Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access Pipeline in the northern United States and ended on Febru ...

(DAPL), Phillips explained he had answered the casting call because he wanted to help his children cope with his wife's cancer.

Lincoln Memorial confrontation

On January 18, 2019, snippets of videos recorded at the

Lincoln Memorial The Lincoln Memorial is a U.S. national memorial built to honor the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is on the western end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Washington Monument, and is in the ...

in Washington, D.C., appeared to show Phillips being harassed by a group of 50 to 60 high school boys who had attended the coinciding annual

March for Life March for Life may refer to: * March for Life (Washington, D.C.), an annual anti-abortion gathering held in Washington, D.C. * March for Life (Paris), an annual demonstration held in Paris protesting abortion * March for Life (Prague), an annual ...

; they were widely shared through social media. Print media described Phillips as surrounded by the students, one of whom, Nicholas Sandmann, exhibited a "relentless smirk".Print media weeks later walked back much of its reporting; see for example thi
Editor's Note
Phillips had walked towards and into a group of adolescent boys from

Covington Catholic High School Covington Catholic High School (abbreviated CCH or CovCath) is a private, Roman Catholic, high school for boys in Park Hills, Kentucky, United States. It was founded in 1925 by Bishop Francis William Howard and Brother George Sauer, and is part ...

(CovCath), who had traveled from

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

on a school trip to attend the

anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...

.The ''March For Life'' had a permit for a

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

demonstrations on the

National Mall The National Mall is a Landscape architecture, landscaped park near the Downtown, Washington, D.C., downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institut ...

on that day. According to ''The Cut'', CovCath sends an annual delegation of its students to attend the anti-abortion March For Life in Washington. He began to chant the AIM Song, a traditional Native American inter-tribal

powwow A powwow (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native American and First Nations communities. Powwows today allow Indigenous people to socialize, dance, sing, and honor their cultures. Powwows may be private or pu ...

song. Videos showed Sandmann, later identified as a junior at CovCath, and Phillips facing each other inches apart while Phillips chanted and beat his drum and some of the students in the background allegedly did "Tomahawk chops" and danced. Several students wore red "

Make America Great Again "Make America Great Again" or MAGA is an American political slogan popularized by Donald Trump in his successful 2016 presidential campaign. The slogan became a pop culture phenomenon, seeing widespread use and spawning numerous variants in ...

" caps. Shortly after the video went viral, CovCath's communications director released a statement regretting that the incident took place. On January 19, 2019, multiple students who were present at the incident stated that coverage of the incident had been skewed. Sandmann released a statement saying that the students were confronted by four members of the

Black Hebrew Israelites Black Hebrew Israelites (also called Hebrew Israelites, Black Hebrews, Black Israelites, and African Hebrew Israelites) are groups of African Americans who believe that they are the descendants of the ancient Israelites. Some sub-groups believ ...

, that Phillips tried to provoke the students, and denying that they had chanted "build the wall" or used any racist language or gestures. Interviewed after the event, Phillips said, "While I was there singing, I heard them saying 'Build that wall! Build that wall!', you know... this is indigenous land! ...We're not supposed to have walls here, we never did—for millennium. Before anybody else came here we never had walls. We never had a prison. We always took care of our elders, we took care of our children," and "There was that moment when I realized I've put myself between beast and prey, ese young men were beastly and these old black individuals was their prey." Robby Soave, writing for

Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, ...

magazine, and

Caitlin Flanagan Caitlin Flanagan (born November 14, 1961) is an American writer and social critic. A contributor to ''The Atlantic'' since February 2001, she was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2019. Her 2004 piece for ''The New Yorker'' was e ...

, writing in

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

, have said that in their opinion, videos of the event either contradicted or failed to confirm parts of Phillips' version of events and the video evidence, while it did not completely exonerate the boys' behavior, was broadly consistent with their story. Flanagan also said that video footage showed members of the Black Hebrew Israelites shouting racial insults and slurs at a group of Native Americans and later at the students. Asked why he had approached the group of students, Phillips said that he was trying to defuse a confrontation between the group of students and a small group of Black Hebrew Israelites who were shouting insults and profanities at the students. In subsequent interviews, Phillips and his associates stated they interpreted the cheers that the students' directed toward their nearby

Indigenous Peoples March The Indigenous Peoples March was a demonstration and march on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on January 18, 2019. The event included speeches, prayers, songs, and dance. Its goal was to draw attention to global injustices against indigeno ...

as racist.

Notes

References

External links

*
Did Nathan Phillips Falsely Claim He Was a Vietnam Veteran?
on

Native elders recount the history of the song Nathan Phillips sang, the AIM Song
on ICT {{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Nathan 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century Native Americans Native American activists Native Americans' rights activists Omaha (Native American) people People from Lincoln, Nebraska Activists from Nebraska Military personnel from Nebraska United States Marine Corps reservists 1954 births American adoptees Living people Articles containing video clips